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Curzon booked their place in the 2nd round
of the J B Parker Challenge Cup with a good solid and disciplined
performance.
Styal who had 7 players booked including two sending off’s, one a
straight red for foul & abusive language towards an official thought
that they could bully Curzon like they had done the week before. But
with 7 changes from the week before Curzon were in no mood to be
intimidated and knew that the way to beat Styal was through the
football as they were not strong enough to win the aerial battle.
The only problem was the pitch; it looked good from the side but was
very bumpy and uneven and caused problems for both sides. Styal
started by forcing Curzon back pumping long balls forward and Curzon
with the return of Jordan Gill & Daniel Toft defended well. Then
right full back Ben Richardson started off a slick move down the
right involving Hazen Gardner & Jamie Byrne which although did not
end in a goal but kicked started Curzon into playing.
It was in this good spell after 25 minutes that Curzon scored.
Awarded a free kick 20 yards out to the right of the 18 yard box, it
was set up nicely for a left foot shot. Jamie Byrne who not for the
first time stepped up and smashed the ball up and over the wall into
the top right corner of Andrew Cowlee’s net. For the rest of the
half Curzon battled well and created some half chances while
reducing Styal to one long range effort.
In the second half Curzon knew that they still had to keep finding
feet as the two central back four paring of Andy Pownall & Craig
Massy were winning everything in the air. The best move of the half
came when from defending Curzon quickly turned it into attack
finding Elstrom Die out wide left, he played in forward Jamie Byrne
but the ball was too high but he cleverly played in his striking
partner Adam Buckley who right footed shot beat the keeper but went
the wrong side of the post. Styal who had not failed to score this
season in any game were frustrated and again only managed one shot
on target and in the last twenty minutes their frustration showed
when Nick Challiner said something to the linesman to be shown a
straight red card. Curzon were now having all the possession, then
with around 15 minutes to go Styal were reduced to 9 men after Andy
Pownall was shown a second yellow for a cruel tackle from behind.
Curzon should have added to their score but with the performance
being the main aim they came off happy and look forward to the next
round. They now have a tricky trip to Witton Albion next Saturday
which see them back to the league program and looking for a win to
keep them in touch with the early leaders.
Team: (Goal Scorer(s) in bold), Darren Riddett, Ben Richardson,
Steve Shiels, Jordan Gill, Daniel Toft, Ben Blease, Hazen Gardner,
Xavier Riedo (Kirtis Hogan), Adam Buckley(c) (Dane Buller), Jamie
Byrne, Elstrom Die.
Subs not used: Steve Szklanka (GK).
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